Try KDE is a new resource listing ways that you can try out KDE without commiting to a full GNU/Linux or BSD install. It includes links to live cds, VMware player images and Klik bundles as well as links to KDE desktops available over NX, with explanations of these technologies. It is linked to from the KDE frontpage and will be updated regularly as more resources are discovered. You the community can help us out, by sending your comments and suggestions to the email address listed at the foot of the Try KDE page.

* it could be used to promote KDE apps
* it could be used to demonstrate new and/or obscure features of KDE apps
* it could be used to understand how people use KDE apps on a daily
basis (great for usability issues)
* it could be used to get help while using a KDE app (you can chat
with your viewers)
* it could be used to demonstrate KDE development
* it could be used to get help while developing a KDE app

In case you are not willing to broadcast from your computer, please contact me and I could do it on your behalf.

May I suggest PCLinuxOS (http://www.pclinuxos.com) as another option for the live CD's? Its great strength is that it comes fully configured with libcss, win32-codecs, java, nVidia/ATI drivers, etc, which is bound to leave a better impression with switchers than many other live CD's that don't. It also has KOffice on the live CD instead of Ooo.

The current live CD version is 0.92 which only has 3.4, but 3.5 is in the repo and will be in the next version 0.93 due out soon, and which should also include KOffice 1.5.

I agree. I tried several distros before trying PCLinuxOS and found many of them to be lacking in fit and finish. PCLinuxOS has done a nice job with getting the commonly needed applications and drivers to make it completely usable right off the bat. In my case, I appreciate that they included the Nvidia driver, beautiful fonts, java and flash. I have found only a few small bugs that can be lived with and recommend it to anyone, especially users like myself who don't want to be bothered tweaking code. I agree that it would be nice to see them include klik in their next distribution.

It could be possible to setup a page showing how to boot from cdrom all (at least, all the major) different bios? this is one of the most F.A.Q. when i tell a friend to try a live CD: "Yes, but.. how should i boot from cdrom?"
(of course i can help too, i know some keystrokes for ASUS, Asrock, and some laptops)

A lot of the Live CD home pages have descriptions on how to do this, e.g. PCLinuxOS has http://www.pclinuxonline.com/wiki/PCLinuxOSLiveCD . Not quite as graphical as you might like, but it's a bit hard to take screenshots of the BIOS :-) Perhaps someone handy with digital camera could take a shot or two?

"Each Klik package is a single file that contains the complete application and the libraries it needs to run."
--------
Sorry, this is not entirely true.

klik bundles do not include *all* dependencies, but only the direct ones.

Typically, to test klik-ified KDE apps, you'll need to have the kdelibs installed as a *system* package (RPM, .deb,...). In most cases version 3.3.x will be good enough, but sometimes you'd need even newer ones.

I've used it and it works great and fun to play with. ^^ I know XGL is experimental but it might be a way to show users the future of Linux with the several technologies out there trying to do 3D in X. :)

I also would like to know whether the sorting algorithm of the file dialog is fixed in KDE 3.5. In KDE 3.4.2 I get the bug that when I scroll through the files in the file dialogue with the keyboard the selection "jumps", this happens esp. when large filenames are in the directory. So the sorting algorithm of the displayed filenames and the scroll routine seems to be different.